Short Food Supply Chain and Resilience: An Analysis during COVID-19 Pandemic in Inner Areas of Campania Region

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic highlighted food systems’ fragility, especially concerning global trade. On the other hand, the pandemic underlined the resilient character of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs), as citizen-consumers continued to buy through such sales channels, in order to limit virus spread, and farms developed innovations and rapid strategic responses. In a fragile context, such as that of inner areas, SFSC may represent, for farms, a significant competitive tool to increase their resilience. This study aims to investigate the degree of resilience of farms in inner areas of Campania Region (South Italy) and the role of SFSC during the pandemic. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of wineries in inner areas of Campania in order to detect their resilience score, which was measured, according to literature, through three variables: effectiveness, flexibility, and responsiveness. A linear regression was run to identify variables affecting farms’ resilience. Results show that both farmers’ and farms’ characteristics turned out to affect farms’ resilience score, such as the turnover, the use of SFSC, and farmers’ age and education. This study’s findings could be helpful for decision-making in the development of inner areas, and for providing targeted policies to manage unexpected events in different scenarios.